After reading through this thread.. I almost.. ALMOST.. decided to take out my Gameboy SP in the drawer next to me and throw my Yellow version in and see what was up. But then I decided I'll wait a few more years..

They already have, there are battery replacements available.
But dont bother playing Red and Blue, what you want is FireRed or LeafGreen for the GBA
There the remake of red and blue but with much better graphics and some things added.
Im currently playing Fired Red on my galaxy nexus.

Your mom denied you Pokemon when you were a kid?? That's like denying your child their childhood.
I personally had Red and then Yellow when I was a kid. Countless hours and AA batteries were spent, and I had the original "brick" GameBoy too! Bulbasaur was my first. I regret nothing.

TBH my mom denied me my childhood, stuff I wanted to do as a kid I am doing now, lol